Futures Flat Ahead of Bank of America, Citigroup Earnings

U.S. stocks pointed toward a flat start on Thursday as Wall Street investors anxiously wait for quarterly earnings releases from banking giants , Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) and Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) along with series of economic data, which include weekly jobless claims and new house building.

At last check, futures on Dow Jones Industrial Average Index slipped 0.04%; those on NASDAQ 100 inched up 0.09% while futures on S&P 500 Index tacked higher 0.08%

Shares of Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) will be under pressure. Shares slumped in premarket trading as global regulators grounded Boeing 787 Dreamliners for safety check (batteries) following strings of incidents.

United Health (NYSE: UNH) on Thursday reported fourth-quarter earnings that barely beat forecasts and maintained its guidance for earnings and revenue growth in 2013.

The group reported EPS of $1.20 in the fourth quarter on revenue of $28.8 billion.Wall Street had forecasted EPS of $1.19 on revenue of $28.24 billion.

On U.S. economic data front, Labor Department’s weekly jobless claims data is scheduled to be released at 8:30 a.m. EST. Economists polled by Reuters are expecting initial claims dropping to 365,000 for the week ended Jan.12 down from 371,000 in the previous week.

Also at the same time, the Commerce Department will release its report on new house building.

Ed Liston is a senior contributing editor at TheStockMarketWatch.com. An active market watcher and investor, Ed guides an independent team of experienced analysts and writes for multiple stock trader publications. He is widely quoted in various financial publications on the Internet. When Ed is not writing about stocks, investing in stocks, talking about stocks, or otherwise doing something stock related, he likes to go sailing and fishing in his yacht.